Science in Scoil Mhuire: Energy and forces-Magnets

Magnificent Magnets

We were very busy scientists in Room One this week. We explored different types of magnets and their effects on different materials. We used large and small items i.e. toy car, small plastic bottle, metal spoons, bottle opener, variety of bottle tops, plastic bricks, selection of keys, jigsaw pieces, card/wood, soft toy, paper clips and a selection of coins etc. We classified objects by placing items into sets that the magnet picked up/did not pick up.

Have a look at us in action......

We drew our results in our copies....the smiley face indicating that the magnet picked up and the sad face indicating that the magnet did not pick up.

We carried out an investigation to see which of the four different types of magnet was the strongest.

Teacher asked us for ideas on how we could find out which was the strongest magnet. We had lots of different ideas. We decided to test the four magnets by seeing which would hold the most paper clips.

First of all, we made our predictions.....

Then we started investigating. We linked paper clips together and stuck them to the different magnets. We made sure the test was fair as some magnets were bigger than others.